Secret Daughter (A Harry Potter FanFic)

Chapter 14

"Well that didn't last long." Draco said as he plopped down on the seat next to Elliana at the breakfast table. 

"What didn't?" She asked.

 "Duelling Club. From what I hear, it's already cancelled. Something about some crazy first year setting a snake on a kid." Elliana laughed and punched Draco lightly on the shoulder. "So what are you doing for the holiday snake girl?" He asked smiling.

"Um.. I don't know yet. I'll have to ask my father, but I assume I'm just staying here with him."

"Don't you have family that you used to live with? You're not going to visit them?"

Elliana's heart panged. She knew Draco was talking about her supposed wizarding relatives who raised her, but she thought back to her adoptive parents. Was she allowed to visit them? She thought about asking her father to spend the Christmas holiday with them. She didn't want to hurt him, seeing as this was her first holiday with him, but then again he didn't seem like one to celebrate. 

"Hey Snape? You still there?" Draco asked, waving his hand in front of her face. She had been lost in her thoughts and forgot to answer his question.

"Oh yeah, sorry. I don't actually like them much. I only lived with them because I couldn't stay at Hogwarts with my father."

"If you wanted, you could come home with me. Get away from school?"

"Thanks Draco. I'll ask my father." She said it, but knew she probably wouldn't have the courage to ask.  She stood up and grabbed her bag, turning to leave. 

"Hey, where you going?" Draco asked looking around.

"Just the bathroom. I'm fine." She answered, pushing him back down as he had stood to join her.

"You're not supposed to go off alone."

"It's the bathroom. I'll live." She rolled her eyes at him as she walked out the Great Hall. She rounded the corner to head to the girls bathroom and saw a group of older Gryffindor girls enter the lavatory. Elliana was not looking to get into it with them so she decided to use the other first floor bathroom. She walked down the corridor to the bathroom that no one really used. There was this really annoying ghost that hung out there, so most girls avoided it. As she approached, she heard the ghost, Moaning Myrtle laughing to herself. She braced herself and opened the door, thinking she would much rather deal with Myrtle than those Gryffindor girls. She took one step into the bathroom and found herself with three wands pointed at her chest. "What the hell."

"What are you doing in here Snape?" Ron Weasley spat at her.

"Might I remind YOU that this is a girls lavatory. I'm here to use the loo. What are you all doing in here?" Elliana said, not phased by the wands still trained on her. 

"Just get out!" Ron stuttered.

"No way. And put your wands down. You aren't going to hex me or you would have already." Ellie said walking right up to them to see what they were doing. Harry and Hermione slowly lowered their wands as she walked up to them. Ron lowered his slightly but kept it pointed at Elliana. "Are you brewing Polyjuice Potion?" She asked as she looked past them into their cauldron.

"How did you?" Harry asked confused.

"Honestly. I'm in your Potions class. You haven't noticed I'm good at it? I could tell by the ingredients you've got lying around, and by the looks of it, it's done." She looked away from the potion and around at the trio. "So what are you using it for? Obviously not schoolwork or you wouldn't be hiding out in a bathroom..." 

"Just get out Snape." Said Harry. 

"No. This is actually perfect." Hermione said, quickly pointing her wand back at Elliana. "Confundo."

Elliana's entire body shook before she collapsed on the ground. 

"Bloody hell Hermione! What did you do?" Ron sputtered. 

"Oh relax, it's a little Confundus Charm. She'll hopefully wake up in a couple minutes and forget she saw us here." Hermione said while quickly spooning their potion into vials and cleaning up the mess of ingredients. "We need to be out of here when she gets up."

"'Hopefully'? That doesn't sound very convincing." Harry said, watching Hermione clean. 

"Snape is gonna kill us." Ron said, all the color draining from his face.

"Shut up you two. She's going to be fine and he isn't going to find out. Harry, grab a hair off of her will you, and let's get out of here." She tucked the vials of potion into her bag and hefted it on her shoulder as she walked briskly out of the bathroom. Harry cautiously plucked a hair off Elliana's head, causing her to stir. He gasped and ran out the door behind Ron and Hermione.

Elliana's eyes opened slowly as she realized that she was lying on the bathroom floor. She stood shakily, her head swimming. Little specks floated in front of her eyes as she stumbled back to lean against the sink. She couldn't remember what had happened. She didn't even remember coming to the bathroom, nevermind how she ended up on the floor. When she had regained control of her limbs, she took a deep breath and headed to find her father.

She got to the Great Hall to find it sparsely populated with students having study hall.  She looked up at the clock in the entryway to see that it was a few minutes past 9. She tried to think of the last thing she remembered, and realized it was waking up this morning, and everything after that was gone up until waking in the bathroom. She realized that she should be in Potions, so she hurried down the steps to the dungeons. 

When she entered her father's classroom, she was greeted by his cold words. "Miss Snape. You're late. And unaccompanied in the halls. That will be detention for you, and five points from Slytherin. Take your seat." She tried to meet his eyes, to communicate that something was wrong, but he refused to look at her and had resumed pacing around the classroom. Elliana sat alone at a table in the back. She tried to complete the day's potion, but couldn't make herself focus long enough. Her potion ended up a solid mass in the bottom of her cauldron by the time her father came round to check. When he saw this he finally met her eyes and she saw real concern in them. She shook her head ever so slightly and asked if she could speak with him after class.

Snape hastily dismissed the rest of the class. Draco started towards Elliana before Snape rebuked him, sending him on his way. "What happened?" He said. Elliana could hear the urgency in his voice. 

"I don't know!" Her voice broke as the emotions she had held back for the last hour flooded out. Tears spilled from her eyes. "I can't remember. Something's wrong."

"Sit." He ordered, pushing her down into a chair. He turned and hurried into his office where Elliana heard the clinking of bottles as he rustled around in his office before coming back with a vial in his hands. He handed her the vial and ordered her to drink the bright blue potion. As it went down her throat, Elliana felt it warming her from the inside out and her body almost instantaneously relaxed, her sobs fading to silent tears. Snape placed his hands on both of her shoulders, looked into her eyes and said forcefully, "Legilimens." After a few moments of searching through her memory, he pulled back. "Someone's tampered with your memory." He said it quietly and without emotion, before stepping back from his daughter and slamming his hand down on the table, causing Elliana to flinch. "We're going to Dumbledore."

"What? NO! I'm fine. I just need to lie down..." She could see his temper flaring and it frightened her. She tried to calm him down. "The potion really helped, I feel better. Please can I just go to bed?" She pleaded.

Looking into his daughter's beautiful green eyes, Snape caved. He put his hand on her shoulder and gently guided her back to his quarters. He could see that even the short walk had tired her, so he set her down gently on the couch in the living room, not wanting to make her walk further than she had to. With a wave of his wand, she was propped up on pillows and a large, soft blanket flew out of the cupboard and wrapped itself around her small body. He sighed in relief as he watched Elliana relax into the couch and waited until she fell asleep to quietly sneak back out into his office. Once out of earshot, he conjured a Patronus, whispered a message to Dumbledore cancelling his classes for the day, and sent it on its way. Satisfied that he had alerted Dumbledore, he quickly returned to his daughter's side, worried to leave her alone. He checked to make sure she was still sleeping before settling down into his armchair. 

For the rest of the day Elliana slept, and for the rest of the day, her father sat guard, watching to make sure nothing happened to his daughter.